Category: Photoshop Plugin

Update 1 (23 Oct): The problem seems to be affecting Mac only. I have been able to confirm that the GrutBrushes plugin still works on all 3 updates to Photoshop CC v20 that I’ve seen so far on Windows

Original Post (18 Oct): It seems the latest Photoshop update is not compatible with the GrutBrushes plugin and will cause it to stop working. The brushes still work of course, the problem is just with the plugin. I have written to my plugin developer to see if they can help, but until then it looks like updating to the latest version of Photoshop will disable the GrutBrushes plugin. Re-installing it does not seem to fix it.

I have written to my plugin developer to see if they can fix it and I will let you know here as soon as I hear back. In the meantime, be aware that if you update Photoshop to the latest version, you will lose access to the GrutBrushes plugin! (Your settings should still be there and I hope they will return if I can get the plugin working again)

If you want to keep the old version of Photoshop installed as well as the new one you can uncheck the “remove old versions” box when updating. This will install the new version and keep the old one installed.

Keep in mind this means you will have two separate versions of Photoshop on your computer,

Uncheck this box to keep 2 versions of Photoshop on your computer

You also have the option of re-installing older versions of Photoshop from the Adobe Creative Cloud app:

you can re-install older versions of Photoshop

if you have already upgraded and don’t want to install the previous version you will have to access the brushes from the Tool Presets panel.

I’m very sorry for this but I had no idea Adobe would be doing this. I hope I can find a solution soon. Stay tuned. I will update you here as soon as I hear.

With version 1.2.1 of the GrutBrushes Photoshop plugin you can now save custom sets of brushes so that they don’t all have to be in one big set. In this short video I show you how to create a new set and how to modify which Photoshop brushes it contains.

If you have an active GrutBrushes membership you can add and install brushes directly into Photoshop via the GrutBrushes plugin panel using the “New” button.
You may think that it is broken, but it is likely just slow to load. I’m very sorry about that, but with a bit of patience, it is fast once it loads up. This 45 second video shows you how it’s done.

If you don’t see the screen with all the brushes, you can navigate to it in the menu by going to My Account > Members Brush Portal

New! Create and Save Custom Sets of brushes and tools

Now you can save sets of brushes and tools to access them with one click

Save a set of your favourite GrutBrushes

Save a custom set of brushes for a particular project

Save one set of brushes for painting and one for drawing

Download the latest version from your account page or get it here if you don’t have the plugin yet.

How to Save a Set of Brushes or Tools

Select “Create New Set” from the menu at the top right of the panel You can also access all menu items from the popup menu by right clicking anywhere in the panel.

Name your custom set of brushes.

It will contain the brushes from the set you were working with last. To add or remove brushes from your new set, select ‘Show/Hide brushes’ from the menu

Show/hide is also available by right clicking in the panel

TIP: Hold cmd/ctrl and or Shift to select multiple brushes.

From the list that appears, those on the left will appear in that set while those on the right will not. You can add or remove brushes from the set by moving them from one column to the other using the arrow buttons.

To switch sets, or load a saved set, just select it from either menu

click to load your saved sets

Changes to the set you have loaded are saved automatically. Add, move or remove brushes from a set and it will stay that way even when you restart Photoshop

Cross Hatchers & Sampler Brushes updated for V1.2.1

Some brushes needed to be updated to work with the new plugin, namely the Cross Hatching brushes and a few of the brushes in the Sampler Set. If you downloaded those before June 25th and are getting an error when you try to load or use them you will need to download them again from your account.

Current ArtBrush members can re-download the full brushes zip from your account page. If you experience any problems with any particular brushes let me know.

Upgrading Photoshop to 2015.5

The latest Photoshop upgrade is a full installation, If you upgrade the GrutBrushes plugin to V1.2.1 before you upgrade Photoshop to 2015.5 you should find the GrutBrushes plugin already installed in version 2015.5 after you upgrade.

This Free Photoshop sampler set of 10 free Photoshop brushes and tools for digital artists is yours for free to celebrate 1 full year of giving away a new free Photoshop brush of the week for 52 weeks straight! http://grutbrushes.com/sampler If you’re using Photoshop CC 2014/15 Download it with the free GrutBrushes plugin panel for the full effect or simply use them in your Tool Presets panel. This image was created using only the tools in the GrutBrushes sampler on a paper background with no post processing.

This may be a ‘minor’ plugin update but it includes some new features and quite a few fixes that may be rather major to those who requested them!

New to V1.1.1 – March 8 2014

Last brush used indicator – the #1 requested new feature

When you pick a brush, the border now lights up in white. This will remain ‘on’ until you pick another GrutBrush, even if you change the settings or pick another tool from the Photoshop menu. Clicking on it again will reset that brush to its default settings.

Reload Cached Brushes

When updating Photoshop, Adobe sometimes removes all your GrutBrushes from the panel and when you open Photoshop again you find an empty GrutBrushes panel. Instead of adding them back again, try this option to reload all your brushes
Reload missing brushes after updating Photoshop

Ok to Replace All when reloading brushes

If you do ever want to add back in all your brushes and reload duplicates by accident, you no longer have to click “ok” to overwrite each one. Just click “apply to all” and any duplicates will be over-written. This is useful if you want to add a number of brushes and don’t remember which ones you already loaded.
Check to reload and Replace all existing Photoshop brushes

Load Brushes from Zip file – No more unzipping first!

You can now just select the zip file that contains your brushes when adding a new brush, you no longer have to unzip it first! This is a nice time-saver and will also allow for downloading and installing sets of multiple brushes from one single file.

This will reset the GrutBrushes panel, as if you had just installed it. Use this when you want to clear all GrutBrushes settings. This will remove all the brushes and clear all settings. Use this with caution and be aware that this will remove all GrutBrushes from the panel and you will have to add them (it will not delete them from your hard drive but always backup your brushes anyway!)

External Images dropping into panel disabled

Some people discovered the hard way that it was possible to drag images into the GrutBrushes panel and get them stuck there. This should no longer be possible with V1.1.1 If this has happened to you the “Reset” button should fix this for you (see above)

TPL files only filter (Mac)

When adding Photoshop brushes and tools to the panel, you will now only see the relevant TPL files in the file requestor and other non-installable files will be hidden from view.

I think that covers most of what you’ll notice in this new version. To install the update, just run the installer as usual, restart Photoshop and you should see the new menu items. To be sure, click on the about menu and you should see “V1.1.1”

If you need to uninstall the old one, here are detailed manual uninstalation instructions for both PC and Mac are included in the zip file.

Let me know how you like it and leave feedback in the comments below. If you like the plugin a great way to support it is to leave a review for it here

[box type=”alert”]Manual Installation If you are having trouble installing automatically using the jsx install script, you can install the plugin manually. It basically involves copying two folders onto your hard drive. A step by step PDF with instructions is included and can be found online here.[/box]

[box type=”info”]To report a problem with the plugin please leave a comment below. Please tell me what version of Mac OS or Windows you are running and what version of Photoshop you are using. Comments and thoughts are very welcome too! If you prefer you can also send me an email here. [/box]

Bookmark this page to check for updates and info on the GrutBrushes plugin

March 8th 2016

GrutBrushes plugin V 1.1.1 is ready! You can download it from your account page or read all about what’s new in this blog post here

If you are having trouble installing the plugin and even though you get an ‘installation ok’ pop up you don’t see it under windows>extensions when you restart Photoshop it could be that due to permissions restrictions your computer is stopping the installer from copying the necessary files onto your computer. Manual installation seems to be the way to go. It basically involves copying two directories from the zip file onto your computer You can find detailed instructions for both Mac and Windows hereUse at your own risk!

So far I only have two reports from users but both tell me that the manual installation worked for them. Leave a comment below if you tried it.

February 4th 2016

Work began today on a plugin update! this will not be major but will include a few requested features including:

Last picked brush indicator
A way to tell which was the last brush you picked!

2. Brush re-loader
When you update Photoshop to the latest version it currently deletes all records of which GrutBrushes you have installed. This will check to see which brushes you had installed and reload them automatically into the GrutBrushes Panel

3. OK to ALL
No longer will you have to repeatedly hit OK to overwrite every brush when you reload them, you will be able to click on an ‘ok to all’ button.

4. TPL filter on Mac
When you choose to ‘ADD’ brushes from your hard drive on a MAC, you will be able to select only the TPL files and not the PNG files by accident (They are hidden by default on a PC)

There will be another tweak or two but those are the main changes you will notice.

I will send out an email and put an announcemnt here on this post when the new version is ready to download from the shop or from your account page

January 28 2016 – Plugin Update in the works
I am getting some reports that the plugin is not installing for some people on the latest version of Photoshop (2015.1.2) I am talking to the developer now to work on a fix but I need to know what version of the plugin is working or not working and for which OS. I really don’t know how many people are using the plugin or how many people are not able to.

I would be so very appreciative If you can let me know in the comments below or in an email whether it is working for you or not and which version OS and which version of Photoshop then I can get a good idea of what needs work.